Fledgling
by MyWingsLetMeFly
Summary: Jasper Dent has been living life as normal as he could ever since he parents were caught. Everything changes when he got an email from Lucy Hart who claims to be the daughter of a serial killer. Jazz wants to save Lucy from her father before she ends up like him but it complicated when Lucy's father becomes part of the game to become the new Crow King. Better summary inside.
1. Chapter 1

**Another name for a baby crow is a fledgling, it is called that during the time in a bird's life when it is grown enough to leave the nest but is still fed and protected by their parents. In many ways Lucy Hart is a fledgling, a newborn Crow discovering the world on her own while still under her Dad's thumb. In her search to understand herself she turned to Jasper Dent, another child of a serial killer that managed to overcome his parents and is somehow leading a normal life. Jazz's life isn't as normal as Lucy imagines it to be. After facing both of his serial killer parents in one night Jazz is barely functioning on his own. He abandoned his mission to hunt killers and is honestly just trying to stay alive. However everything changed when he got an email from Lucy Hart asking for his help. Jazz can't leave this girl in the same hell he grew up in so he decides to do everything he can to save her. However the Crows have begun a new game, one more dangerous than ever. With the competition to become the King Crow in full throttle Jazz would have to face every single Crow in existence to save a single girl. Lucy isn't helpless but with her father's grip still around her psyche she is unsure of how to help anyone, including herself. Jazz's story inspired her to set out on her own path but she is surrounded by Crows all more than willing to kill her the moment she shows weakness. Will Jazz ever dismantle the Crows and find Lucy? Will Lucy give up her humanity and become a Crow? Will either of them survive?**

Chapter 1

Jazz wondered why he even to bother to keep an email account as he shuffled through the crap people send him. Everyone important to him had his cell phone number, even when he got a new phone he kept the old number. Besides email was way too easy to track down. No matter what account name he chooses eventually someone finds his email.

It got a lot worse ever since the memoir came out, god he loathed its very existence. At the time he'd been able to justify it; all the crap that his parents put him through made college pretty much impossible and he had to have some money to live on. So the book seemed the easiest way to survive. Besides he kept a lot of stuff out of it, things that were no one's business, thing about his— Ugly J.

_Touch me like that, there Japer. _

Jazz shook his head slightly feeling nauseous. The memories always haunted him, the voices of his parents screaming in his head constantly. Ever since that night with his parents, where it all ended, all his repressed memories assaulted him. In his every dream and even while he was awake his past haunted him. Jazz swallowed hard and turned his attention back to the computer screen.

Most of the emails went straight to the trash if they came from an unrecognized address. However the subject line on one of the emails caught his eye; it read "Jack Dawes". Jazz froze. At the police's request, he purposely kept most of the details about the inner workings of the Crows out of his memoir. Jazz clicked onto the email.

From:mybleedinghart 

To: jazzwazhere 

Subject:Jack Dawes

Dear Jasper Dent,

I'm going to assume the subject got your attention. I read "your" book, but you didn't write it did you? It seemed too objective at times, like there was no emotion in the memories. I have a question for you: why didn't you kill them? If I had your opportunity I wouldn't hesitate. I would kill my father in a second if I could but I'm scared. The Crows know me, I've met a few of them. They'd come after me if I killed him. Can you help me? Please save me from my father. I don't want to become him. I want to be like you. I want to be human. To have a soul. Can you give one to me? Don't go to the police. He'll kill me if he finds out I contacted you. You can reach me at this number, leave a message and a number if I don't answer. 235-998-6171. P.S. If you cannot tell me who Jack Dawes is then don't bother calling.

From,

Lucy

Attached to the email was a picture of a girl younger than him, she looked fifteen maybe sixteen. The lighting in the photo was horrible, Jazz suspected she did it on purpose. The girl was staring at the camera with wide blue eyes, blonde curly hair spilling over her shoulders. Spread out in front of her was a bunch of small seemingly meaningless pieces of junk. A necklace, earring, a card (either a drivers licenses or credit card), a ribbon, and others: Trophies. Jazz counted 14 trophies in the pile, he was almost certain a girl as young as the one in the picture couldn't kill that many people but female serial killers had been surprising him lately so he didn't dismiss the possibility.

After Jazz had dealt with his parents he promised Connie he'd be done with the serial killer stuff for good. Connie, he missed her. They hadn't talked in more than a week. Jazz called her last night but she didn't answer. She had been missing his calls more and more often. It didn't surprise Jazz at all, he knew their contact would be limited the moment Connie told him she was going to New York. She hadn't asked him to come and Jazz was just happy he didn't have to say no.

Jazz picked up the phone knowing Connie would kill him when she found out but dialed the number from the email anyway. The phone went immediately to voicemail, most likely turned off. "Hey Lucy, this is Jasper Dent. I think we need to talk. Honestly I'm not sure if I believe your story, sorry I get a lot of messages from crazy people. I'll tell you what, if you can convince me that your Dad is a serial killer I'll see what I can do to help you out". Jazz said into the phone. He kept his voice calm making sure to add a bit of a challenge to the last sentence. Afterwards Jazz hung up the phone and wondered what the hell he got himself into.

Lucy loved it when he left her by herself. Every few months Daddy would go off to some new town on a 'business trip'. Sometimes he would take her with him from the start, a father-daughter pairing was less suspicious but other times he'd leave her alone. She could never be too certain if she was really alone. Daddy could come home unannounced either done with that particular alias or he decided to bring her for a lesson. Less often but occasionally one of the others showed up, Lucy had met three of them not counting Daddy, three Crows. But Daddy's been gone for longer than usual he's competing. Daddy decided long ago that he wanted to become the King Crow and right now the position was open.

Lucy sat in the crawl space, it deep within Daddy's closet and hidden inside was the trophies. Normally Lucy wasn't allowed to be near them on her own. Daddy was protective of his toys. She knelt in front of the lone shelf, placing each souvenir back on their specific places. It was almost a month ago that Lucy decided to contact Jasper Dent. She wasn't really sure why, wasn't sure if she even wanted to leave Daddy. Jasper Dent was famous, the son of two serial killers who had overcome both nature and nurture and taken them down.

Lucy wasn't like Jasper, Daddy wasn't even related to her. He reminded her that constantly after what happened to the Dent family. "The only reason Billy and Janice were caught was because they let their affections for their son cloud their judgement" Daddy told her a thousand times, "lucky for us, I don't have that problem". At this point in the story Daddy would put his hands around her neck without squeezing. "I love you, sweetheart but if you cross me I won't hesitate to give you the most painful death I have ever created. You will be my legacy whether you're living or not" his voice was cold and he'd squeeze just for a moment to remind her that he holds her life in his hands.

If Daddy found out she was trying to contact Jasper he'd kill her. There was no logical reason to take this risk but Lucy needed to talk to him, just for a moment. She'd been searching through the Dent family fan sites, and had found several possible emails that people claimed belonged to Jasper Dent. At first she sent an email to every one of those emails claiming to be a Crow. Two of the emails came back saying the domain did not exist, all of the other emails got an immediate enthusiastic reply expect for one. The last email didn't even bother to reply.

The last email was the best shot at being the real Jasper, anyone who knew anything about the Crows would know that they wouldn't be stupid enough to say they were a Crow. Then Lucy sent another email to the address; including the code usually used by the Crows and a picture of her surrounded by some of Daddy's souvenirs. Lucy crawled out of the crawl space. The light in her Daddy's bedroom was overly bright and Lucy blinked a few times. She walked out the room and into the kitchen. The house was single story, and had only two bedrooms.

Lucy slipped on a jacket then exited her house. Even with Daddy gone Lucy wasn't stupid enough to keep anything related to Jasper Dent or a normal life in her house. There was an abandoned asylum on the outskirts of town. Teenagers sometimes went inside on dares and there were always rumors circulating around town about it being haunted. Lucy was only fourteen and Daddy was always particular about her staying out of the system so she wouldn't dare try to drive without an adult in a car. Instead she rode her bike over to the asylum.

The faded sign in the front read 'Soul's Asylum: A resting place for weary minds'. Lucy wondered if she counted as a weary mind, an insanity plea may come in handy in the future. Hiding the bike under the bushes behind the sign, Lucy walked to the one of the lower windows, it was already half open so pushing it up was easy enough. The screen had been cut away long ago so Lucy was able to pull herself straight through. The inside of the asylum was just as run down as its exterior. Lucy had entered in one of the patient rooms. The floor creaked under her feet with every step and when Lucy entered the hall the creaking grew louder. She walked with slow careful steps until she reached a staircase. Lucy grimaced at the stare case but started climbing downward.

At the bottom of the stairs there was another door with a padlock on the outside. Lucy pulled her wallet out of the pocket of her jacket and removed a set of lock picks from one of the slots meant for credit cards. Picking locks was something, Lucy loved doing. There was something beautiful in the simplicity of the movements all building up to such a faint _click_. Lucy pulled the now open lock off the latch and yanked the heavy door open loudly. Once inside she immediately closed to door behind her. There was a few tables inside and more locked cabinets that Lucy never bothered to look inside of. She grabbed her backpack that she stowed on top of one of said cabinets and dumped its contents on one of the tables.

Lucy picked up her burner phone and turned it back on. There was a voicemail. Lucy smiled and played the message. "Hey Lucy, this is Jasper Dent. I think we need to talk. Honestly I'm not sure if I believe your story, sorry I get a lot of messages from crazy people. I'll tell you what, if you can convince me that your Dad is a serial killer I'll see what I can do to help you out" said a young male voice. It sounded similar to the footage she'd seen of Jasper Dent's testimony in the Hat-Dog case but she couldn't be sure. Lucy didn't even think about it, she just redialed the number.

"Hello" answered the voice, it was certainly the same voice as the message.

"Who is John Dawes" Lucy demanded. This was her trump card, her insurance that this was the real Jasper Dent.

"No one, it's a message between Crows, jackdaw is another word for crow" he said. She recognized this tone of voice, Daddy used it often to keep people calm and she could easily recreate it. Lucy choked back a sob, she'd found him. It never really occurred to her that she'd actually find him, she only really thought to look. "Your name is Lucy right?" he asked after a moment of silence.

"And yours is Jasper Dent" Lucy replied once she composed herself.

"I guess I passed your test. Can you pass mine?" he asked.

"When I was seven, my Dad was killing people in a small town in Louisiana, the media called him Dracula. He was draining the blood of young girls and leaving their bloodless corpses in churches" she purposely kept her voice timid and scared, but started to lose herself in the memory. "I wasn't allowed to help with killing but he had me help with the clean up. Daddy left me alone in the abandoned house he was killing in, everything was covered in plastic to make cleaning up blood easier. I ended up finding one of the buckets filled with the latest girl's blood, and started playing in it just as easily as if it were water. I can still remember how it felt against my skin so warm almost as if it was still living. Daddy laughed when he found me" I finished my story though it continued to play out in my mind after I stopped talking.

"_At least you've got good instincts sweetheart, but right now you're a walking evidence trail. You have to learn control, no amount of fun is worth being trapped for the rest of you life" _Daddy told me after he found me. Then he locked me in a dog cage for 12 hours to prove his point and true enough I developed a mild claustrophobia, I cannot handle being trapped anywhere.

"I remember that case" Jasper said into the phone. "I'm not sure if that story counts as proof" he added as an after thought.

"There were ten victims under that M.O. I don't their names, Daddy always told me names were meaningless. Just labels given for the understanding of toys" Lucy said, her voice was stronger now.

"People matter and their names make them real to everyone around them" Jasper said with conviction.

"The first victim was a red barrette, Daddy bought me one just like it afterwards. The second one was a nail file. The third one was a bangle…" Lucy listed off the victims labeling each victim by the souvenir taken from them.

"And you have all of them" Jasper asked.

"At my house, I couldn't risk talking to you from there" Lucy explained.

"I'll look into your story and call you later if I can confirm it" Jasper said.

"Okay. Please, don't tell anyone I called you" Lucy pleaded, "He won't hesitate to kill me, I swear" she added desperately.

"I won't tell anyone about you" Jasper said, he sounded completely earnest however that set Lucy on edge. Both of them ended the call and wondered if they could really trust the other.


	2. Chapter 2

Jazz called Howie right after hanging up on Lucy. It was pretty much a reflex, as soon as he found himself in danger he always called Howie. As always Howie picked up the phone immediately, "Hey man, what's up?".

"I was thinking about doing something potentially dangerous and illegal so I called you" Jazz responded. He was hoping to be able to cover as much of the situation as he could without mentioning Lucy, for now at least.

"Damn it Jazz, aren't you on probation" Howie spluttered. He was trying to fake cluelessness to stall.

"You know exactly when I got off probation. You tried to throw a party, remember?" Jazz said rolling his eyes even though Howie couldn't see him.

"Seriously dude, I thought you were out of the game" Howie pronounced the out of the game with mock seriousness parodying an action movie star. Jazz chuckled at his friend, Howie's greatest strength was his ability to find humor in the worst situations.

"I'm not hunting anyone. I just have something to check on" Jazz said slowly. Howie groaned loudly at his best friends cryptic words.

"Connie is going to be so pissed" Howie grumbled, he wasn't even bothering to put up a fight.

"Only if she finds out" Jazz replied.

"You're not going to tell her" Howie exclaimed.

"Like I said Howie, I'm just checking on something. If it turns out to be what I think it is then we'll tell Connie" Jazz said.

"You better not let me get stabbed again" Howie said sighing. As soon as the words left his mouth he know how Jazz was going to reply.

"You were slashed, not stabbed" Jazz replied grinning.

"Just keep all knifes away from the bleeder, okay?" Howie said.

"We'll be fine. Nothing dangerous, the case I want to look into happened more than 5 years ago" Jazz explained. He racked his brain but couldn't remember exactly what year Dracula had been killing. Judging by how old Lucy looked in the picture it had to be at least six years ago if she was seven at the time.

"Was it solved" Howie asked.

"Not yet, and don't worry I don't want to solve it" Jazz replied.

"So you're not going to hunt this killer" Howie asked hopeful. But Jazz paused on the other end, it was a thoughtful pause that Howie had learned to hate over the years. It meant Jazz was thinking about how to tell him something but at least that means that Jazz hadn't planned this ahead of time.

"That depends on what we find out" Jazz said after a moment. Howie barely stopped himself from groaning, yeah he hated that pause. "Coming over" Jazz asked.

Howie was too loyal for his own good, "Yeah I'll be there at 7" he said in a tired voice.

"Thanks Howie" Jazz said before hanging up. This would be hard, nearly impossible. It's likely that the police don't even know what was taken from the victims. _If you gotta take something, Jasper, make sure to keep it small. Can't have anyone looking for it. _Jazz almost welcomed his father's familiar voice in his head, it was better than the alternative. Jazz looked back at his phone and typed out a text to Connie.

'Hey Con call me" he sent the message. He wasn't going to mention anything about Lucy, it'd be too easy to distract her from that. All Connie wanted to talk about was New York where she was going to college. She tried her best to avoid the subject around Jazz, but was constantly waiting for him to give her permission to talk about it. Hearing about New York never really bothered Jazz, if he wanted to escape the memories than he'd leave Lobo's Nod, that's where everything happened. Still it was home.

'Bout 2 go 2 class ttyl luv u' Connie sent the message back in seconds. Jazz held back a sigh, and glanced at the time. It was only 3:27. Jazz had a few hours to kill until Howie was coming over and had no Connie to distract him. Grabbing his car keys, he left the empty house behind without a second thought. Behind the wheel of his jeep Jazz drove purely on muscle memory. The route ingrained on his mind.

The Kettle/Herrara Care Institute was 40 minutes from his house. Normally Jazz appreciated the long drive, it gave him time to think before having to see her. Right now Jazz's thoughts centered entirely on Lucy. In the picture she looked young and her voice on the phone confirmed it. Maybe Billy had started a trend in the Crows after he decided to keep Jazz alive. The thought made Jazz's blood go cold. The idea of any child having to go through what he did was terrifying. G. William did his best to keep Jazz informed on what was happening with the Crows, but the FBI didn't give up information easily, especially to someone who had been responsible for the death of an Agent. Jazz tightened his grip on the steering wheel and accelerated the car. He was driving way above the speed limit now, nearing 80 mph.

In front of the car, Jazz could see the building in the distance. From here it looked like a haunted mansion due to the gothic style. Kettle/Herrara Care Institute was an old building, it'd been around for decades. It was also the best one in the State and it cost a shitload of money to keep her there. Janice was in a completely vegetative state. Jazz drove up the long winding road leading to the small parking lot in front of the Institute. Jazz parked in his usual spot near the front and got out of his jeep. In the back of his mind Jazz wondered why he couldn't bring himself to replace his father's old car, in a twisted way Jazz was sentimental.

"Back again, Jasper" the receptionist commented from behind the desk.

Jazz flashed her his best smile, _the charmer. _"Couldn't miss seeing you Karin" he flirted a little. Karin rolled her eyes but blushed a little. Jazz could charm her too easily, he could persuade her to follow him out the door into his father's jeep without any effort. Even her knowledge of his past couldn't stop him.

"Don't you have a girlfriend" Karin shot back. The brief mental image of Connie was more than enough to shut off the darker part of his mind.

"I'm allowed to have friends" Jazz said as he signed his name on the visitors list.

"In my experience boys don't smile like that when they're thinking about friendship" Karin said raising an eyebrow at him.

"You're right, but you don't even want to know what the boys had in mind in my experience" Jazz replied with a dark edge. Karin visible shuttered behind the desk and Jazz winced slightly. He raised both his hands in surrender, "Sorry people keep telling me I can't pull of dark humor" he apologized.

"You should really start listening" Karin said. She had her arms wrapped around her body and wasn't meeting his eyes. Jazz sighed, "Sorry" he said again then turned and left. Her room was near the front so Jazz didn't have to walk far. He walked down a hallway, swung a left and her room was the eight one of the right.

"Hello, Mom" Jazz told her as he entered the room. Janice lay on the bed unmoving, her skin was shriveled up. It probably felt hard and scaly but Jazz wouldn't know, he couldn't bring himself to touch her. It seemed silly to still let her have that power of him but the thought of it made Jazz sick to his stomach. Jazz's mind drifted back to Lucy, for only a moment he wondered what information Janice had swirling around in her head. Jazz swallowed hard and turned his attention to the large window, there was a cherry tree just outside.

"I met a girl, she knows our dear friend Jack Dawes" Jazz said softly. The code was unnecessary, no one could hear him. Jazz looked back at Janice, "If she turns out to be like you I'll stop her" he promised. He wondered how many people his mother had killed. Against his better judgement Jazz drew his eyes over her whole body, he was thankful the blankets covered the scars he had made.

_Janice sat on top of his bed with him. She was in only her underwear and he was completely naked. His hands were running over her chest. Janice was talking to him but he was too preoccupied touching her to listen. __"__Jasper__" __Janice said sharply. Jasper managed to look up at her, his hands still resting on her chest. __"__Get the knife, sweetheart__" __Janice said patting his cheek gently. _

_ Jasper nodded silently. Slowly he removed his hands then grabbed a knife off of the mattress. __"__Come on, Jasper__" __she said softly. Jasper nodded again but he didn__'__t move. Janice guided his hand holding the knife up to her shoulder. _

"Jasper" a voice called loudly from the door. Jazz snapped his head away from Janice. "Are you okay" asked his mother's doctor, Dr. Indari.

"Yeah, just a little lost in thought" Jazz said.

"You know you don't have to do this. No one would blame you if you ever wanted to pull the plug" the doctor said.

"Shouldn't you try to keep me spending my money here" Jazz joked lightly.

"There are some people that don't deserve this kindness" Dr. Indari said with a shocking amount of sincerity. Jazz nodded once then glanced back at Janice.

"Trust me, I know" Jazz replied quietly.

Dr. Indari cleared his throat, "It was nice seeing you Jasper" he said. Jazz nodded again. Jazz sat in silence after the Doctor left. Finally Jazz stood from his chair and leaned in close to Janice.

"If the girl turns out like me, I'll save her" Jazz whispered softly in his mother's ear. Then he turned and walked out of the hospital room without looking back.

"Goodbye Jasper" Karin called as he walked past. Jazz managed a weak wave before leaving the building. His little trip down memory lane made his skin crawl. Jazz closed his eyes and the images from his past played out. He coughed dryly, doubled over with one hand on his jeep. Once he was sure he wouldn't throw up, Jazz got into his jeep and drove away slowly. It was nearly 5:30 now. Jazz continued home at a slow pace barley meeting the speed limit. Passing cars drove around him as if he wasn't even there. Jazz wanted to scream or cry or do something, anything to release the growing pressure in his head. His hands gripped the steering wheel too tightly, his back hunched over, and his teeth clenched. It was all too much.

Jazz was half convinced he'd never make it home when his street finally came into view. Once his car was parked in the driveway, Jazz walked up to his front door. To his surprise Howie sat on his front stoop, looking up at him with a wide grin. "You're early" Jazz said plainly.

Howie chuckled lightly, "Glad I am. You're not looking so good man" he said.

Jazz rolled his eyes and stepped carefully around his best friend to let them both into the house. "So uh how's Janice" Howie asked as they walked inside.

Jazz didn't question how Howie read him so easily. "She's still alive" he replied wondering briefly if that was a good thing or a bad thing. The sad smile on Howie's face made it seem like a bad thing. "Let's move on to the real matter at hand" Jazz said, sitting on his couch.

"The real matter" Howie questioned taking a seat next to Jazz.

"Dracula" Jazz explained, "The killer we're going to research".

"Oh yeah that" Howie muttered glumly. Jazz felt a brief pang of guilt in his chest at the look on his best friends face. In the back of his mind Jazz remember Lucy's request in her email: I want to be human. To have a soul. Can you give one to me? Those words made Jazz feel compelled to help her; even though, he had no reason to believe in her. Call it faith.

"Look this is different from before, it has nothing to do with the killer. A victim asked for my help" Jazz said to reassure Howie.

"What do you mean? Since when do you talk to victims" said Howie with voice laced with disbelief. Jazz longed to tell Howie the whole truth, telling someone would make it real. Howie was staring at him expectantly and Jazz decided to tell him the truth (at least most of it). If this turned out to be a trap than it wasn't fair to bring Howie in without letting him know what he's getting into.

"There's this girl. She sent me an email claiming Dracula is her father" Jazz admitted. Howie gaped at him in stunned silence.

"So some random girl claims to have grown up in the exact same situation as you and you believe her! No offense dude but your kind of famous now and people do insane things to get close to famous people" Howie exclaimed. Jazz almost wanted to smile at the irony of this situation. Nice, optimistic Howie was lecturing Jazz on the dangers of the world.

"She knows about Jack Dawes" Jazz interrupted Howie's ranting, "Besides what we're doing right now is checking out her story to see if its true".

"What if she's lying" Howie asked seeming much more calm now.

"Then we call the cops. She obviously knows something about the crows" Jazz said casually.

"And why don't we just call the cops now" Howie said in a tone of voice that clearly meant 'well duh'.

"Because if she's telling the truth and we call the cops then her dad will kill her" Jazz answered. As Jazz spoke Howie had a look on his face of pure horror.

"And what if she's telling the truth" Howie asked quietly.

"Then I'm going to save her" Jazz declared.


End file.
